“Vengeance is not justice.”
The man’s voice was grim. “It is in my book.”

That man, “Uomo”, is Creasy. And the vengeance he seeks is for his wife and daughter who were killed when their airplane was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. And Creasy will collect his vengeance. As the FBI man said about him , “...that man is death on a cold night.” Or as Geraldine described him, “He’s just a machine created by hate.”

This is a very good book, and in some ways, better than its predecessor! Creasy does go after those who blew up his family, and he trains a young man, Michael, to be his assistant. They train, they prepare, and then they act! My kind of thing - for sure! The only thing I didn't like about this story was the character, Geraldine. She felt unnecessary to me, much like all of the background information about Guido in the first book. But her part was much, much shorter, and therefore, less "annoying". But I am super happy that I have found these books, and I really love Creasy Bear! ( )

I was introduced to AJ Quinnell books after reading Man on Fire when it was re-released at the same time the movie featuring Denzel Washington was. As usual, the book was 100 times better than the movie, and I searched for more from Quinnell. I was disappointed to see that all his other books, four FD featuring mercenary Creasy, were out of print. Last week I was happy to discover that all of Quinnell's books are now available for Amazon Kindle.

The Perfect Kill is the second of the four Creasy novels. It jumps ahead several years to the bombing of Pan Am flight in Lockerbie. On board were Creasy's wife and four year old daughter, with whom he has lived in peace and contentment on the Mediterranean island of Gozo after his last act of vengeance years earlier. Of course, their death awakened the call for revenge and justice that he thought had died many years earlier. Plans for the Perfect Kill are set in motion, and Creasy works methodically and coldly to accomplish his task.

Like Man on Fire, I enjoyed The Perfect Kill. It was well balanced between action and story and the character of Creasy. A reader could tire of the coldness of him, or at least of the emphasis of it, only to find that he's not so cold after all, but it was only a minor detraction from a well told and action packed story.

Creasy, noting his advancing years, also begins work on a protégé who can not only help with this mission but carry on after Creasy can not. In doing so Creasy learns, in part as a result of what he has caused, that he does not have a, "monopoly on vengeance." ( )

Creasy is back in the second novel featuring this merciless but just mercenary. Story begins with fall of Pan Am 103 over Scotland. Creasy's wife and daughter were on that plane and he decides to avenge their death (after hearing that terrorists were responsible for the plane crash). He gets in touch with another mournful husband that has lost his wife on that same flight and together they begin to plan their vengeance.

When it comes to Creasy his enemies tend do classify him as just one of those "soldier-boys", "gun-for-hire". He is best described not as mercenary but man of war (quoted from Dickson's Dorsai; by the way Creasy could just as easily be Graeme brothers ancestor). He knows nothing else but to fight and wage war on anybody foolish enough to attack him or those close to him. But he does not do it like a brute but in a calculated manner, taking time to plan everything - in other words acting like a true professional.

Although he starts his mission trying to act without feelings his emotional side surfaces as the story progresses (as it happened in "Man On Fire").

Although somebody may say that there is no depth in the story (due to the fact that Creasy and his comrades are all battle hardened veterans and as such are sure to win in almost any conflict) I like it - what is more important this is one of those stories [rather rare these days] where good guys are good guys (even if they have done something bad in their past) and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good cause (again, whether revenge is ever to be considered good is to be debated, but Creasy and his men act like heroes of the past - no peace for the wicked, no compromise with them).

I hope more Quinnell's books will be made available in the future. ( )